the 5th Halliwell
by slayer681
Summary: Prue remembers things from her childhood as she waits for Patty to give birth to the 5th Halliwell
1. Chapter 1

Sixteen year-old Prue Halliwell sat in the hospital waiting room with her sisters thinking about how life was going to change once again. She couldn't remember being an only child, she had been a little less then two when Piper was born. Then Phoebe three years later.

For a while things were good. The girls lived with their parents, Patty and Victor, and Grandmother, Penny, in a beautiful Victortain house that their family had built many years ago in San Francisco. Then the fighting started. Prue could remember Grams and Victor yelling at each other.

"Penny, they are my kids and I don't want this for them!" Victor would yell.

"It doesn't matter what you want Victor. They are Halliwells. It's their birthright." Grams would shout back. Till this day Prue had no idea what their birthright was supposed to be.

About a week after Phoebe's first birthday, Prue over heard her parents talking.

""Victor, you have to understand, this is what the girls are meant to be," mom had said.

"You can put your foot down with your mother Patty. They don't have to live the same life you have, afraid of what's coming around the next corner. I know there has to be a way to stop them from getting this."

"I can make it so they don't receive their gifts until they are ready, but they will eventually get them. I can't take their heritage away from them."

The next morning Victor told the girls he had to go on a business trip. He didn't come back for ten years.

About a year after Victor left, mom met Sam. Sam started hanging around more and more. Even at the age of six, Prue could tell how happy he made her mom. He made her and her sisters very happy too.

Then one day when Prue was seven they sat the girls down for a talk.

"Girls, Sam has something to ask you" mom said. "This is something very serious and we need your honest feelings".

"Prue, Piper, Phoebe. I love your mom very much. And I love each of you. If it's ok with you, I would like to marry your mom and adopt the three of you as my own." Sam said.

Before he could get another word out Piper and Phoebe were jumping all over him, giggling and yelling yes. As much as she liked Sam, this scared Prue. She was really the only one that remembered what it was like when their dad had left.

"Girls, there's more." Mom said trying to calm the younger two.

"More?" Piper asked.

"Yay! Sam's going to be my daddy!" Little Phoebe said as she danced around the room.

Mom scooped Phoebe up in her arms. Mom looked at Sam with the biggest smile Prue had ever seen. "Tell them the rest" she said to Sam.

He shook his head no. "I think that news should come from you" he told her.

"What mommy? What news?" Piper asked excitedly.

Looking down at Phoebe mom said "you are going to be a big sister".

"How?" Phoebe asked.

"Mom's having a baby Phoebe". Prue said.

"Yay! Can I name it?" Phoebe asked. Both mom and Sam laughed at this.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Eight year-old Paige asked Prue as she plopped down in the chair next to her.

"Oh just the day mom told us she was pregnant with you. Phoebe wanted to name you."

"Wainbow Bite" Piper said. "She couldn't say her Rs right".

"Haha. I was what, four" Phoebe replied as she and Grams walked into the room.

"Why haven't I heard about this before?" Paige asked

"I guess we had forgotten about it." Prue said.

"I'm going to check on your mother. Can I trust you girls to behave?" Grams asked. "Please no fighting".

The four sisters nodded.

"Prue and I will keep an eye on these two" Piper said.

Grams gave them all that look that said or else as she turned and walked out of the waiting room.

Phoebe, looking bored, went over to the tv that was mounted on the wall and started changing the channels until she found what she was looking for. Paige had followed her over there and was now complaining about Phoebe's choice.

"Oh come on! Do we really have to watch 'Kill it Before it Dies'? It's sooooo boring!"

"You don't have to watch it. You can go away."

Piper looked at Prue to see if she was going to step in, but Prue was again lost in thought. WIth a sigh, Piper got up saying "I'll take care of it."

"Hum" Prue said.

"Nothing" Piper said as she walked toward her two little sisters.

Prue's thoughts drifted to the day mom and Sam brought Paige home. Phoebe had been so excited. Running around yelling "my baby, my baby!" But Prue and Piper had been through the new baby thing before.

"Prue, honey, can you hold baby Paige while we bring in the rest of the stuff?" Mom had asked her.

"No!" Phoebe yelled "It's my baby."

"You can hold her later darling" mom said softly touching Phoebe's face.

Prue took Paige from her mother and went into the living room. Piper followed them. Even though the two older girls could remember what it was like to have a baby in the house, they still loved this little bundle. And Prue felt like they were really a family again.

The next few months were pretty good, even though nobody was getting much sleep. By this time Phoebe had grown bored with Paige, complaining that she didn't do anything but sleep, cry, and poop. So things were back to normal.

Of course life couldn't stay good. Not for the Halliwells. When Paige was six months Sam was in a bad car accident and was killed. It seemed that none of the Halliwell children were destined to really know their father. Sam's death hit Prue pretty hard. After all, he had become a better father to her then Victor had.

After Sam's death mom and Grams focused their energy on just raising the girls. As the girls got older, the pain of Sam's lose grow smaller. Paige would ask about him from time to time, but that was really the only time he was brought up. The three oldest girls knew how much talking about him hurt their mom so they tried very hard to answer Paige's questions themselves.

Then last year there was a knock on the door. When Prue answered it she could only stand there in disbelief.

"Prue! Look how big you've gotten!" Victor exclaimed. With that Prue slammed the door in his face. Prue could hear Victor through the door saying "ah, come on sweetie. Is that any way to treat your father?"

"Who at the door, sweetie?" Mom asked coming out of the kitchen.

"Nobody" Pure said

From the other side of the door Victor said "Come on Prue, open the door".

"Prue, is that your father?" Mom asked moving towards the door.

"No, it's just Victor." She refused to call the man who had abandoned them her father. Prue started to head upstairs, but decided to stop half way up and listen in.

Mom opened the door and found Victor standing there with a big smile.

"Patty" he said as he reached out to hug her. Mom backed out of his reach and said "Victor what are you doing here?"

"Aren't you going to let in?"

"No. You can say what you have to say right there."

"Ok, have it your way. But I would like to see my girls."

"They stopped being your girls when you forgot where you lived."

"Fine. But I do need to talk to you. It's important. Will you meet me for dinner tonight, say eight at the Hampton lounge?"

"What's this about?"

"I'm going to be moving back and I want to talk about spending time with the girls."

"You would have a lot to do to prove yourself before you get to see them."

"I know. That's why I want to talk. Tell you my plans."

"Fine. I'll meet you".

"Mom, what's for lunch?" Phoebe called as she was coming down the stairs.

"See you tonight? Eight o'clock?" Victor asked.

"Yes. Now go." Mom said and closed the door.

"Who was mom talking to?" Phoebe asked Prue.

"Nobody important." Prue told her as she stood up. Mom saw her and realized that she had been listening to her and Victor.

Prue told her mom "I don't care if he does move back. I don't want anything to do with him."

"And you have every right to feel that way sweetie."

That night mom met Victor like she said she would. When Prue got up the next morning to go to school mom was just getting home.

"That must have been some talk if you were out all night." Prue said under her breath as she walked past mom. Prue never did see Victor after that day. But here she was, nine months later, waiting in the hospital waiting room for mom to give birth to the next Halliwell baby.


	2. Chapter 2

The girls were getting restless setting in the waiting room. Prue was pacing, Piper was trying to do her homework, and as usual, Phoebe and Paige were fighting over the TV. Prue went over to them and grabbed the remote, turning the TV off.

"Hey!" Both of the girls yelled.

"You two are done with the TV. You both have homework to do. Get to it."

"Who made you the boss?" Phoebe asked

"I'm the oldest one in this room, so that make's me the boss."

"I don't want to do homework." Paige wined. "It's boring"

"If you don't get it done, what will happen when Grams finds out?"

"Okay, okay." Paige said as she opened her backpack. She pulled out her binder and took it to the table where Piper was working.

"Phoebe?" Prue said

"What?" Phoebe asked. Prue gave her a look, then looked at her backpack. "Fine." She grabbed a novel from her bag, and started to read. Prue continue to pace.

"Prue, would you sit down. You're driving me crazy." Piper said. With a humph, Prue plopped down in a chair next to Paige. Paige was studying for her social studies test she had coming up at the end of the week. Social studies has always been Prue's favorite subject, so she really enjoyed helping all her sisters with it.

"What are we studying about?" Prue asked her.

"The Colonies. I can't remember all thirteen." Paige said, putting her head on her open binder.

"Here, let me show you an easy way to remember." Prue said grabbing a piece of paper and pencil.

As Prue started working with Paige, Grams came into the room.

"All doing homework. Just what I like to see." Grams said.

Paige jumped up saying, "Is the baby here?"

"Yes, you're baby sister is here."

"Can we see her?" Phoebe asked

"In a little bit. Your mom wants to see Prue first" Grams answered.

Phoebe and Paige groaned in disappointment. "You'll get your turn" Grams told them giving them both a kiss on the head. She then put an arm around Prue and led her out of the waiting room.

"Why does Mom want to see just me?" Prue asked

"Because you're the oldest and you should meet your sister first" Grams said.

They continued to walk down the hallway in silence. Prue didn't understand why it would be so important for her to see the baby first. She felt if anyone had the right to see the baby first it should be Paige, since this made her a big sister. When they reached the door to the maternity ward the door was closed. Grams pushed the doorbell, and when one of the nurses answered over the intercom she told them they where there to see Patty Halliwell. Prue thought it was weird that they just couldn't go right in, but Grams had told her it was for the safety of the babies. There was a buzzing sound and Grams pulled the door open.

Grams and Prue walked the down the short hallway to Patty's room.

"Knock, knock," Grams said poking her head into the room. "You ready for a visitor?"

Prue assumed Patty answered yes to Grams' question because Grams was now gently pushing her into the room. Even though Prue had gone through meeting a new sister three times before, two of which she could remember, she nervously stood at the edge of the room.

"Prue," Patty said with a big smile, "Come meet your new sister, Payton."

Prue moved towards her mother and sister in the bed. Patty patted the bed, so Prue sat down next to her mother. Patty slide her free arm around Prue and pulled her close. Prue relaxed into her mom and took a good look at her baby sister. She was so small. Prue reached for Payton's little hand and Payton grabbed her finger tightly.

"I think she likes you,"

"Patty, darling, I'm going to go check on the girls. When would you like me to bring them back?"

"Can you give us about ten minutes, Mom?"

"Sure." Grams said as she left the room.

Still staring at Payton, Prue asked "so why did you just want me to come in first?"

"Well, I wanted you to be the first one for her to meet. Prue, honey, Payton is very special. You'll understand why when you are all older. But she's going to need her biggest sister to look out for her the most. Can you do that?"

"I will always look out of all of them." Prue answered

"I know you will. You're a good big sister. But you are almost out of high school, planning on going to college, and starting your life as an adult. I just don't want you to be to busy for this little one. She will need you more then you know."

"I won't let you down mom."

"I know you won't sweetie."

"Can I hold her before the others come in?"

"Absolutely" Patty said and slid Payton into Prue's arm. "You remember how to do this?" Prue nodded.

"Hi Payton. I'm Prue. One of your big sisters. And I'll always be here for you." Payton gave Prue's finger another squeeze and smiled. At that moment Prue knew that Payton really was going to be something very special, and she would do anything in her power to help keep her safe and happy.


End file.
